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Dark Victory: The Life of Bette Davis
by Ed SikovThe legendary Hollywood star blazes a fiery trail in this enthralling portrait of a brilliant actress and the movies her talent elevated to greatnessShe was magnificent and exasperating in equal measure. Jack Warner called her "an explosive little broad with a sharp left." Humphrey Bogart once remarked, "Unless you're very big she can knock you down." Bette Davis was a force of nature—an idiosyncratic talent who nevertheless defined the words "movie star" for more than half a century and who created an extraordinary body of work filled with unforgettable performances. In Dark Victory, the noted film critic and biographer Ed Sikov paints the most detailed picture ever delivered of this intelligent, opinionated, and unusual woman who was—in the words of a close friend—"one of the major events of the twentieth century." Drawing on new interviews with friends, directors, and admirers, as well as archival research and a fresh look at the films, this stylish, intimate biography reveals Davis's personal as well as professional life in a way that is both revealing and sympathetic. With his wise and well-informed take on the production and accomplishments of such movie milestones as Jezebel, All About Eve, and Now, Voyager, as well as the turbulent life and complicated personality of the actress who made them, Sikov's Dark Victory brings to life the two-time Academy Award–winning actress's unmistakable screen style, and shows the reader how Davis's art was her own dark victory.
Dark Was the Night: Blind Willie Johnson's Journey to the Stars
by Gary GolioThe poignant story of Blind Willie Johnson--the legendary Texas musician whose song "Dark Was the Night" was included on the Voyager I space probe's Golden RecordWillie Johnson was born in 1897, and from the beginning he loved to sing--and play his cigar box guitar. But his childhood was interrupted when he lost his mother and his sight. How does a blind boy make his way in the world? Fortunately for Willie, the music saved him and brought him back into the light. His powerful voice, combined with the wailing of his slide guitar, moved people. Willie made a name for himself performing on street corners all over Texas. And one day he hit it big when he got a record deal and his songs were played on the radio. Then in 1977, his song--"Dark Was the Night"--was chosen to light up the darkness when it was launched into space on the Voyager I space probe's famous Golden Record. His immortal song was selected for the way it expresses the loneliness humans all feel, while reminding us we're not alone.
Dark Wine Waters
by Frances SimoneOne woman's heartbreaking story of a marriage destroyed by her husband's addiction to alcohol.The dynamics of codependency are illuminated in this gripping tale. Author and widow Frances Simone describes her husband's attempts at treatment and subsequent relapse, his suicide, and her own recovery through a twelve-step program for families.Frances Simone, PhD, is a recently retired professor emeritus from the graduate college of Marshall University in South Charleston, West Virginia. Her essays have appeared in The Voice and The Quarterly of the National Writing Project, the Charleston Gazette, Writers Digest, and The Forum.
Darke
by Rick GekoskiThis critically acclaimed debut novel offers &“an original and bleakly funny portrait of grief&” in the singular mind and solitary life of its protagonist (The Economist). Shortlisted for The McKitterick Prize and The Author&’s Club Best First Novel Award Cranky and reclusive, ageing and widowed, Dr. James Darke has expelled himself from the world. He writes compulsively in his &‘coming of old age&’ journal; he eats little, drinks and smokes a lot; he tries to console himself with the wisdom of the great thinkers and poets, yet finds nothing but disappointment. And yet, cracks of light start to appear in his carefully managed darkness: the tender, bruised filaments of love for his daughter and grandson. With scalding prose, ruthless intelligence and an unforgettably vivid protagonist, Darke confronts some of humanity&’s greatest and most uncomfortable questions about how we choose to live, and to die.&“A supreme example of a natural and skilled storyteller.&”—Colm Toibin&“Surprising…with a warmth that is genuinely and unexpectedly moving.&”—The Guardian, UK
A Darkening Green: Notes on Harvard, the 1950s, and the End of Innocence
by Peter PrescottThis is a book about the end of childhood. Much of it is drawn directly from a diary the author kept while he was a bright but insecure freshman at Harvard in the 1950s. From these pages emerges a precise description of the raw, half-understood experience of late adolescence-the anguish and arguments, the rivalry and anxiety about sex, the facile cynicism and desperate fumblings for purpose, the bull sessions held late at night-just as Peter Prescott recorded them only hours after the event. These diary excerpts are contained in a narrative that examines that freshman experience from a vantage point of twenty years. Thus, we are able to look at the past with a double perspective: The exact record, unclouded by memory or nostalgia, of what was said and done is set in a structure that reveals the form of the experience. The result is an ironic, witty, and often moving book. Writing with some compassion and even more asperity, Peter S. Prescott not only captures the conflicts and emotions of a single year, but probes beneath the surface of memory to explore certain tribal customs and rites of passage as they are played out in the classrooms and living quarters of the college. A few famous people-T. S. Eliot and Edith Sitwell among them-play brief parts in this chronicle, but young Prescott's attention was primarily engaged in his struggle with his extravagant roommates and an assortment of eccentric undergraduates.
Darker than Night: The True Story of a Brutal Double Homicide—and an 18-Year-Long Quest for Justice (St. Martin's True Crime Library)
by Tom HendersonA chilling account of the murders of two hunters in rural Michigan—a mystery that haunted a community and baffled the police for two decades.In the bitter cold of 1985, two buddies from Detroit embark on a hunting trip to the Michigan wilderness, unaware they will soon become the hunted.The eerie silence surrounding their sudden disappearance is broken after nearly two decades when a relentless investigator inspires a terrified witness to break her silence. The witness narrates a haunting scene that had unfolded years back, pointing fingers at the prime suspects—the Duvall brothers.With no bodies unearthed, the justice system is riveted by the startling revelations during an electrifying trial in 2003. The brothers, Raymond and Donald Duvall, had bragged about the murders, evocatively explaining how they dismembered their victims and fed them to pigs. Despite the shocking confession, the case holds its ground purely on a single witness’s account, taking the courtroom through a labyrinth of dark secrets and sinister acts.This gripping thriller presents a vivid tale of crime that reveals the devastating power of evil.
The Darker the Night, the Brighter the Stars: A Neuropsychologist's Odyssey Through Consciousness
by Paul BroksWhen celebrated neuropsychologist Paul Broks's wife died of cancer, it sparked a journey of grief and reflection that traced a lifelong attempt to understand how the brain gives rise to the soul. The result of that journey is a gorgeous, evocative meditation on fate, death, consciousness, and what it means to be human. The Darker the Night, The Brighter the Stars weaves a scientist’s understanding of the mind – its logic, its nuance, how we think about what makes a person – with a poet’s approach to humanity, that crucial and ever-elusive why. It’s a story that unfolds through the centuries, along the path of humankind’s constant quest to discover what makes us human, and the answers that consistently slip out of our grasp. It’s modern medicine and psychology and ancient tales; history and myth combined; fiction and the stranger truth. But, most importantly, it’s Broks’ story, grounded in his own most fascinating cases as a clinician—patients with brain injuries that revealed something fundamental about the link between the raw stuff of our bodies and brains and the ineffable selves we take for who we are. Tracing a loose arc of loss, acceptance, and renewal, he unfolds striking, imaginative stories of everything from Schopenhauer to the Greek philosophers to jazz guitarist Pat Martino in order to sketch a multifaceted view of humanness that is as heartbreaking at it is affirming.
Darkest Before Dawn: Writings, Testimonies and Correspondence from the Life of Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe
by Derek Hook Leswin Laubscher Robert SobukweA collection of Robert Sobukwe's political writings, speeches and court testimonies supplemented by an account of his years in Kimberley following release from Robben Island.There are several accounts of Robert Sobukwe’s courageous role in contesting South Africa’s system of apartheid and of his incarceration on Robben Island after the Anti-Pass Campaign that led to the tragic events of Sharpeville in March 1960. Far less attention has been paid to the years the leader of the Pan-Africanist Congress spent in Kimberley, between 1969–1978, after his release from the Island. Darkest Before Dawn, the follow-up to Lie on Your Wounds: The Prison Correspondence of Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, captures the story of the post-prison years of Sobukwe’s life.This latest compilation complete with a biographical narrative by the editors and enriched with images from Sobukwe’s life in this period of his life demonstrates the many challenges Sobukwe faced as well as his continued political resolve to fight for an end to apartheid. This is captured in the many meetings he had in spite of banning orders and letters he exchanged with friends and admirers, including the celebrated novelist Bessie Head whose letters to Sobukwe are published here for the first time. Sobukwe continued to meet political allies, such as Black Consciousness leader Steve Biko, he pursued a legal career and played host to international visitors. The portrait of Sobukwe that emerges is that of a highly ethical man, a figure of dignity and fortitude, and a wise elder whose commitment to the people of Africa and to the vision of Pan-Africanism who remained undeterred, despite his being forced to live, in his final years, under near impossible conditions.To do justice to Sobukwe’s legacy, his intellectual contribution and his unfailing desire to pursue liberation for the African people, we need to view his biography against the backdrop of his words. Darkest Before Dawn includes a definitive collection of his political writings, speeches, unpublished court testimonies, interviews with Gail Gerhart and Joe Thloloe, and expansive annotations by the compilers. The book ends with a reflective essay which highlights the ongoing pertinence of Sobukwe's legacy.
The Darkest Dark
by Chris Hadfield Kate FillionInspired by the childhood of real-life astronaut Chris Hadfield and brought to life by Terry and Eric Fan's lush, evocative illustrations, The Darkest Dark will encourage readers to dream the impossible. Chris loves rockets and planets and pretending he's a brave astronaut, exploring the universe. Only one problem--at night, Chris doesn't feel so brave. He's afraid of the dark. But when he watches the groundbreaking moon landing on TV, he realizes that space is the darkest dark there is--and the dark is beautiful and exciting, especially when you have big dreams to keep you company.
The Darkest Dark: Read & Listen Edition
by Chris Hadfield Kate FillionInspired by the childhood of real-life astronaut Chris Hadfield and brought to life by Terry and Eric Fan's lush, evocative illustrations, The Darkest Dark will encourage readers to dream the impossible. Chris loves rockets and planets and pretending he's a brave astronaut, exploring the universe. Only one problem--at night, Chris doesn't feel so brave. He's afraid of the dark. But when he watches the groundbreaking moon landing on TV, he realizes that space is the darkest dark there is--and the dark is beautiful and exciting, especially when you have big dreams to keep you company.
The Darkest Night: Two Sisters, a Brutal Murder, and the Loss of Innocence in a Small Town
by Ron FranscellCasper, Wyoming: 1973. Eleven-year-old Amy Burridge rides with her eighteen-year-old sister, Becky, to the grocery store. When they finish their shopping, Becky's car gets a flat tire. Two men politely offer them a ride home. But they were anything but Good Samaritans. The girls would suffer unspeakable crimes at the hands of these men before being thrown from a bridge into the North Platte River. One miraculously survived. The other did not. Years later, author and journalist Ron Franscell--who lived in Casper at the time of the crime, and was a friend to Amy and Becky--can't forget Wyoming's most shocking story of abduction, rape, and murder. Neither could Becky, the surviving sister. The two men who violated her and Amy were sentenced to life in prison, but the demons of her past kept haunting Becky ... until she met her fate years later at the same bridge where she'd lost her sister.
The Darkest White: A Mountain Legend and the Avalanche That Took Him
by Eric Blehm“Eric Blehm offers an insightful perspective on how Craig Kelly became the effortless icon that we all revered as well as sobering details of how his heroic journey tragically ended. The Darkest White is a must read, not just for fans of snowboarding, but for anyone looking for inspiration from an unlikely hero.”—Tony HawkFrom Eric Blehm, the bestselling author of The Last Season and Fearless, comes an extraordinary new book in the vein of Into the Wild, the story of the legendary snowboarder Craig Kelly and his death in the 2003 Durrand Glacier Avalanche—a devastating and controversial tragedy that claimed the lives of seven people.On January 20, 2003, a thunderous crack rang out and a 100-foot-wide tide of snow barreled down the Northern Selkirk Mountains in British Columbia, Canada. More than a dozen skiers and snowboarders were thrust down the mountain, buried beneath several tons of rock-hard snow and ice in the Durrand Glacier Avalanche. A heroic search and rescue ensued. Among those buried was Craig Kelly—“the Michael Jordan of snowboarding”—a man who had propelled the sport into the mainstream before walking away from competitions, to rekindle his passion in the untamed alpine wilds of North AmericaThe Darkest White is the story of Craig Kelly’s life, a heartbreaking but extraordinary and inspiring odyssey of a latchkey kid whose athletic prowess and innovations would revolutionize winter sports, take him around the globe, and push him into ever more extreme environments that would ultimately take his life. It is also a definitive, immersive account of snowboarding and the cultural movement that exploded around it, growing the sport from minor Gen X cult hobby to Olympic centerpiece and a billion-dollar business full of feuds and rivalries. Finally, The Darkest White is a mesmerizing, cautionary portrait of the mountains, of the allure and the glory they offer, and of the avalanches they unleash with unforgiving fury.“Eric Blehm took on this biography as I imagine Craig Kelly took on the halfpipe. He studied it, chose his line, and pulled everything off—even tough parts—with grace and style. It’s not just a terrific story of an amazing life, not just the origin story of an entire sport, but a riveting disaster narrative that builds tension masterfully. The Darkest White grabbed me and didn’t let go."—Jack Carr, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Terminal List series
Darkness Descending
by Ken JonesIn January 2003, Ken Jones, an adventurer and former British Special Forces soldier, was caught in a devastating avalanche as he climbed deep in the frozen wilderness of Romania's Carpathian Mountains. Swept over the edge of a 75-foot cliff, he plummeted to the rocks below. Against all odds, he survived the fall--regaining consciousness shrouded in darkness and sub-zero temperatures, separated from his supplies, and in excruciating pain from a broken leg and shattered pelvis. With frostbite and internal bleeding beginning to take their toll, Jones summoned his deepest will to live and began three agonizing days dragging himself over frozen terrain to safety--only to discover that his true ordeal was yet to begin. The doctors who initially treated him were astonished that any person could sustain such massive trauma and exposure and still be alive. Then, after an initial round of extensive surgeries and recoveries that equaled if not exceeded the pain of the injuries themselves, Jones was told he would almost certainly never walk again. Over the next two years he endured constant physical therapy and additional surgery, with latent effects from the fall still threatening his life. At one point, he slipped into unconsciousness under anesthesia just as he heard a doctor telling his mother he was going to die. But with a soldier's heart he made his way to recovery, regained full mobility, and has made his story known in this remarkable book. In the bestselling tradition of Into Thin Air and Touching the Void, Darkness Descending is a classic tale of triumph over adversity and what it means to never give up. Jones's remarkable feat has already been featured on Animal Planet's hit series I Shouldn't Be Alive, and stands tall as an unforgettable testament to the strength of the human spirit.
Darkness Descending
by Ken JonesAn astonishing true story of mountaineering survivalOn 5 January 2003, former Special Forces soldier Ken Jones was caught in a devastating avalanche as he climbed in the frozen wilderness of Romania's Transylvanian Alps. Flung from a cliff, he regained consciousness to find himself shrouded in darkness, separated from his supplies, suffering from overexposure in the sub zero-temperatures and in horrendous pain from a broken leg and shattered pelvis. Heavily frostbitten and bleeding internally, Ken dragged himself to safety over three agonizing days only to discover that his true ordeal had yet to begin. His account of life saving surgery and his battle to walk again is a classic tale of triumph over adversity and what it means to never give up. Heart stopping and inspiring to the very last page, Ken Jones's story of endurance and survival is an unforgettable testament to the strength of the human spirit.
Darkness Descending
by Ken JonesAn astonishing true story of mountaineering survivalOn 5 January 2003, former Special Forces soldier Ken Jones was caught in a devastating avalanche as he climbed in the frozen wilderness of Romania's Transylvanian Alps. Flung from a cliff, he regained consciousness to find himself shrouded in darkness, separated from his supplies, suffering from overexposure in the sub zero-temperatures and in horrendous pain from a broken leg and shattered pelvis. Heavily frostbitten and bleeding internally, Ken dragged himself to safety over three agonizing days only to discover that his true ordeal had yet to begin. His account of life saving surgery and his battle to walk again is a classic tale of triumph over adversity and what it means to never give up. Heart stopping and inspiring to the very last page, Ken Jones's story of endurance and survival is an unforgettable testament to the strength of the human spirit.
Darkness Over Germany: A Warning From History
by E. Amy BullerHitler gave voice to a cry that came from the heart of a nation. Originally published in 1943, Darkness over Germany is a poignant and timely reminder of how high youth unemployment and the disenfranchised working class gave Hitler a savage worship. Between 1934 and 1938 Buller interviewed hundreds of men and women in Germany. This book is the result as Buller explores the deep sense of injustice felt by hundreds of German men and women which led to the ensuing Nazi ideology, and which could have been written today.
Darkness Over Germany: A Warning From History
by E. Amy BullerHitler gave voice to a cry that came from the heart of a nation. Originally published in 1943, Darkness over Germany is a poignant and timely reminder of how high youth unemployment and the disenfranchised working class gave Hitler a savage worship. Between 1934 and 1938 Buller interviewed hundreds of men and women in Germany. This book is the result as Buller explores the deep sense of injustice felt by hundreds of German men and women which led to the ensuing Nazi ideology, and which could have been written today.
Darkness to Light: A Memoir
by Lamar Odom Chris PalmerNew York Times Bestseller Fame. Sex. Pain. Drugs. Death. Booze. Money. Addiction. Redemption. Dizzying heights. Rock-bottom depths. Desperation and elation—sometimes in the same hour. Not to mention power . . . and the struggle for it. The world knows Lamar Odom as a two-time NBA world champion who rocketed to uncharted heights of fame thanks to being a member of both the storied Los Angeles Lakers and the ubiquitous Kardashian empire. But who is Lamar, really? Fans have long praised his accessibility and genuine everyman quality—he is a blinding talent who has suffered a series of heartaches, setback, and loss. But until now, his most candid moments have remained behind closed doors . . . sometimes face-down on the floor. In Darkness to Light, Lamar gives readers an intimate look into his life like never before. His exclusive and revealing memoir recounts the highs and lows of fame and his struggle with his demons along the way to self-discovery and redemption. From the pain of his unraveled marriage to Khloé Kardashian to the harmful vices he used to cope—and the near-death experience that made him rethink everything about his life—this is Lamar as you have never before seen him. Lamar brings basketball fans directly into the action of a game during the Lakers championship years. He shares his personal account of the lifelong passion that started as one shining light in a childhood marked by loss and led to his international fame as one of the most extraordinary athletes of all time. In this profoundly honest book, Lamar invites you to walk with him through the good times and bad, while looking ahead to a brighter future.
Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness (Modern Library 100 Best Nonfiction Bks.)
by William StyronThe New York Times–bestselling memoir of crippling depression and the struggle for recovery by the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Sophie&’s Choice.In the summer of 1985, William Styron became numbed by disaffection, apathy, and despair, unable to speak or walk while caught in the grip of advanced depression. His struggle with the disease culminated in a wave of obsession that nearly drove him to suicide, leading him to seek hospitalization before the dark tide engulfed him. Darkness Visible tells the story of Styron&’s recovery, laying bare the harrowing realities of clinical depression and chronicling his triumph over the disease that had claimed so many great writers before him. His final words are a call for hope to all who suffer from mental illness that it is possible to emerge from even the deepest abyss of despair and &“once again behold the stars.&” This ebook features a new illustrated biography of William Styron, including original letters, rare photos, and never-before-seen documents from the Styron family and the Duke University Archives.
The Darkroom: Case Files of a Scotland Yard Forensic Photographer
by A.J. HewittIt was my job to look and look and never look away, until I had captured every part of the scene, until I had told the story of those last moments that the dead could not... For years, A.J. Hewitt was the first person into a crime scene. Before the detectives and the forensics team it was her alone with the body, the only sound her flashes firing as they lit up scenes of unimaginable horror. It was her job to shoot the photographs that revealed the circumstances of someone's final moments. Now in her debut book, The Darkroom, Hewitt takes us into the shadowy world of the crime scene photographer, and recounts remarkable tales, from murders to suicides, accidents to assassinations.In the tradition of Unnatural Causes, When the Dogs Don't Bark and All That Remains, this is a true crime book full of the wisdom that can be found in the darkness.
Darkwater
by W. E. B. Du BoisW.E.B. Du Bois, one of the most celebrated intellectuals of the twentieth century, published Darkwater -- a powerful collection of essays, verse and fiction -- in 1920, two decades after his most famous book, The Souls of Black Folk. Throughout his long life and extraordinary career as a scholar, activist, writer and educator, Du Bois's body of work illumined America's understanding of the "problem of the color line." While much of his early texts were sociological investigations of the Black community, the author increasingly incorporated autobiographical, poetic and spiritual elements into his works. The results are some of the most electrifying commentaries ever written on race and class in America. After decades of obscurity, this literary jewel is presented with a new introduction written by David Levering Lewis, author of W.E.B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race, 1868-1919 and W.E.B. Du Bois: The Fight for Equality and the American Century, 1919-1963; Lewis is the foremost scholar of the work of Du Bois. "If The Souls of Black Folk achieved its singular impact through W.E.B. Du Bois's masterly interweaving of the personal and the universal in such a way that each appropriated something of the illustrative and symbolic value of the other, much of Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil was a cri de coeur in which the author's anger at the absurdities of racial prejudice crackled through the text like electric jolts that scorched, illumined, or stunned." -- David Levering Lewis, from the Introduction
Darling
by Richard RodriguezAn award-winning writer delivers a major reckoning with religion, place, and sexuality in the aftermath of 9/11 Hailed in The Washington Post as "one of the most eloquent and probing public intellectuals in America,” Richard Rodriguez now considers religious violence worldwide, growing public atheism in the West, and his own mortality. Rodriguez’s stylish new memoir-the first book in a decade from the Pulitzer Prize finalist-moves from Jerusalem to Silicon Valley, from Moses to Liberace, from Lance Armstrong to Mother Teresa. Rodriguez is a homosexual who writes with love of the religions of the desert that exclude him. He is a passionate, unorthodox Christian who is always mindful of his relationship to Judaism and Islam because of a shared belief in the God who revealed himself within an ecology of emptiness. And at the center of this book is a consideration of women-their importance to Rodriguez’s spiritual formation and their centrality to the future of the desert religions. Only a mind as elastic and refined as Rodriguez’s could bind these threads together into this wonderfully complex tapestry. .
Darling Days: A New York City Childhood
by iO Tillett WrightI WAS BORN, SEPTEMBER 1985, IN THE VORTEX OF THE LOWER EAST SIDE OF NEW YORK: THERE WERE FEW RULES OF LIFE AND ZERO CONTRAINTS ON BEHAVIOUR. IF YOU WERE NOT ECCENTRIC, YOU WERE WEIRD.It was a tenement building at the centre of the drug-addled, punk-edged, permanent riot that was iO's corner of the Lower East Side of New York City in the '80s and 90's. There iO grew up - or rather scrabbled up - under the broken wing of a fiercely protective, yet wildly negligent mother.Rhonna was a showgirl, actress, dancer, poet. A widow by police murder, she was also an addict. She doted and obsessed over iO, yet lacked an understanding that a child needs food and sleep and safety.Unfolding in animated, crystalline prose, an emotionally raw, devastatingly powerful memoir of one young person's extraordinary coming of age - a tale of gender and identity, freedom and addiction, rebellion and survival in the 1980s and 1990s, when punk poverty, heroin and art collided in the urban bohemia of New York's Lower East Side.Darling Days is also a provocative examination of culture and identity, of the instincts that shape us and the norms that deform us, and of the courage and resilience of a child listening closely to their deepest self. When a group of boys refuse to let the six-year-old play ball, iO instantly adopts a new persona, becoming a boy named Ricky, a choice the parents support and celebrate. It is the start of a profound exploration of gender and identity through the tenderest years, and the beginning of a life invented and reinvented at every step.Alternating between the harrowing and the hilarious, Darling Days is the candid, tough, and stirring memoir of a young person in search of an authentic self as family and home life devolve into chaos until iO escapes to Germany and then England to become an amazingly talented, exciting, edgy artist and wonderful writer.
Darling Days: A New York City Childhood
by iO Tillett WrightI WAS BORN, SEPTEMBER 1985, IN THE VORTEX OF THE LOWER EAST SIDE OF NEW YORK: THERE WERE FEW RULES OF LIFE AND ZERO CONTRAINTS ON BEHAVIOUR. IF YOU WERE NOT ECCENTRIC, YOU WERE WEIRD.It was a tenement building at the centre of the drug-addled, punk-edged, permanent riot that was iO's corner of the Lower East Side of New York City in the '80s and 90's. There iO grew up - or rather scrabbled up - under the broken wing of a fiercely protective, yet wildly negligent mother.Rhonna was a showgirl, actress, dancer, poet. A widow by police murder, she was also an addict. She doted and obsessed over iO, yet lacked an understanding that a child needs food and sleep and safety.Unfolding in animated, crystalline prose, an emotionally raw, devastatingly powerful memoir of one young person's extraordinary coming of age - a tale of gender and identity, freedom and addiction, rebellion and survival in the 1980s and 1990s, when punk poverty, heroin and art collided in the urban bohemia of New York's Lower East Side.Darling Days is also a provocative examination of culture and identity, of the instincts that shape us and the norms that deform us, and of the courage and resilience of a child listening closely to their deepest self. When a group of boys refuse to let the six-year-old play ball, iO instantly adopts a new persona, becoming a boy named Ricky, a choice the parents support and celebrate. It is the start of a profound exploration of gender and identity through the tenderest years, and the beginning of a life invented and reinvented at every step.Alternating between the harrowing and the hilarious, Darling Days is the candid, tough, and stirring memoir of a young person in search of an authentic self as family and home life devolve into chaos until iO escapes to Germany and then England to become an amazingly talented, exciting, edgy artist and wonderful writer.
Darling Days: A Memoir
by iO Tillett WrightBorn into the beautiful bedlam of downtown New York in the eighties, iO Tillett Wright came of age at the intersection of punk, poverty, heroin, and art. This was a world of self-invented characters, glamorous superstars, and strung-out sufferers, ground zero of drag and performance art. Still, no personality was more vibrant and formidable than iO’s mother’s. Rhonna, a showgirl and young widow, was a mercurial, erratic glamazon. She was iO’s fiercest defender and only authority in a world with few boundaries and even fewer indicators of normal life. At the center of Darling Days is the remarkable relationship between a fiery kid and a domineering ma—a bond defined by freedom and control, excess and sacrifice; by heartbreaking deprivation, agonizing rupture, and, ultimately, forgiveness.Darling Days is also a provocative examination of culture and identity, of the instincts that shape us and the norms that deform us, and of the courage and resilience it takes to listen closely to your deepest self. When a group of boys refuse to let six-year-old, female-born iO play ball, iO instantly adopts a new persona, becoming a boy named Ricky—a choice iO’s parents support and celebrate. It is the start of a profound exploration of gender and identity through the tenderest years, and the beginning of a life invented and reinvented at every step. Alternating between the harrowing and the hilarious, Darling Days is the candid, tough, and stirring memoir of a young person in search of an authentic self as family and home life devolve into chaos.